


If I should fall from grac[E] with god

by Kestrelwinter



Category: Drag-On Dragoon | Drakengard, NieR: Automata (Video Game), Nier Gestalt | Nier Replicant | Nier (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, F/M, i swear this is not a dream sequence, my inspiration for this fic was "the ending of pans labyrinth does not need to be edgy"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:07:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28360641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kestrelwinter/pseuds/Kestrelwinter
Summary: After the war, peace settles, and some things grow.
Relationships: 2B/9S (NieR: Automata), A2/Anemone (NieR: Automata), Accord/Zero (Drag-On Dragoon)
Kudos: 12





	If I should fall from grac[E] with god

If the last great machine war left them with anything, it was anendless list of things to repair. Broken bodies, broken hearts, minds infected with a deadly logic virus, no longer deadly, and in most cases, no longer infected. 

There were some who could not be saved, but Anemone reasoned that putting those androids into a dormant state until the resistance, or even high command, could come up with a working solution, was better than death.Or, whatever death really meant for them. 

Anemone tried her best to focus on life. With the war finally ended, the tower destroyed and...whatever was inside it long gone, the days and nights of fire and panic and death seemed to finally be at an end.  
By the day the tower fell, they had lost so much, so many people she had known were gone forever; but the sight of three familiar bodies flown to her resistance camp had lifted her heart. Anemone was used to loss, but seeing people saved? _That_ she could get used to..

From there it had been...touch and go. Some reconfiguring of now defunct Yorha tech, combined with the surprising reappearance of her camp’s Devola and Popola units had given the camp a resurrection engine, a means of bringing the nearly dead back to full functionality.

When confronted, as the pair of androids limped back into camp, the twins had simply shaken their heads, shrugged as a pair, and gotten to work on fixing anyone who could be fixed.

Anemone had asked Popola that first night though, her curiosity had gotten the better of her.

She looked at the resistance commander sadly, “we died at the base of the tower, and then we woke up, back to normal. I think I heard someone say something to us, a woman I didn’t recognize, but I can’t remember what.”

When pressed further, the best she could remember were the sounds of two people walking away from them, one woman angry, swearing in a language she didn’t recognize perhaps, at her companion, and the sound of a case clasping shut.

\--

2b sighed, and longed for the days when emotions were prohibited, as she stared out into the dunes in a search for signs of life. Things were...better now, but during the war, living was easy, even when it was hard. The endless cycle of fight, kill, grieve, repeat was less messy than actually dealing with her problems. Pretending she didn’t feel anything was easier, even when she was lying to herself.

“Hey 2b! I think I see someone!” 9s called to her from up ahead.

She didn’t want to think about the first weeks once she and 9S had awoken in the resistance camp, the faces of the people she’d started thinking of as friends with worried expressions.

She’d been angry, and she felt justified in it. She had had days where she’d hated the young man who traveled with her. She hated him, she loved him, she killed him, what difference was there in the end? He’d been angry too, just as justified in his anger, but she’d seen his face, and before 2b could even register what she was doing, she was holding him close, even as he thrashed, and swore, and sobbed.

With the war over, 2b and 9s had an abundance of free time, so they talked. The two of them had days and nights of just talking, being angry, crying, holding each other close, because who else could understand the way their fates had entwined, always been entwined.

_You’re thinking about how much you want to **** 9s, aren’t you 2b?_

There was that voice in the back of her head, not menacing, not cloying, but in the back of her head. She’d told 9s about it, and he’d insisted she get fully scanned. No virus, nothing wrong, but she felt the uneasiness nonetheless, like the black box in her chest was caught in a vice grip, squeezed but an unseen pair of hands.

Maybe it was guilt? No. She’d felt enough guilt in her life to know what that felt like, but this wasn’t that.

She joined 9s on the dune ridge, pushing her thoughts aside. Below was a makeshift camp, a small group of machines sat on what looked like blankets and conversed with each other. As the pair of androids got closed, a few of the machines looked up at them and waved. 

\--

“Welcome! Androids! Hello!” came the calls from the camp.

“What do you think this is, 2b?” 9s asked her. She racked her brain, she knew machine lifeforms often tried to emulate the behaviors of old world humans, it almost looked like…

“These weirdos decided to have a fucking picnic in my camp.” 2b was shaken from her thoughts by the lone non-machine occupant, a young woman wearing a green shift and a scowl that raised the fibers on the back of 2b’s neck.

“Listen you little fucks. I don’t know what you are, but you can’t stay here. You two look reasonable, can you tell these shits that they need to leave?”

2b was at a loss for words, but 9s spoke up. “Wait, you’ve never seen machine lifeforms, ma’am?”

The woman glared daggers at 9s, who swallowed back a whimper. 

“I’ve been here less than a week and these fuckers decided to camp out with me.”

“Miss Kaine has been most hospitable!” One machine, wearing a top hat and a metal moustache soldered to its face called out.

“Yeah, yeah, why don’t you fucking tell everybody, huh?”

The machine stood up and said again, but louder, “Miss Kaine has been Very! Hospitable!”. Several other machines cheered, a few ‘here here’s thrown in for good measure.

The woman called Kaine sighed, she turned her attention to the androids.

“I’m looking for someone, maybe you can help me.” she said, 2b felt a deeply uncomfortable feeling in the bit of her stomach. Haven’t we had this conversation before?

“He’s this little guy uh...face like a ball? Goes by Emil.”

9s visibly brightened. “Oh! Emil! Yeah, we’ve uh...met him.” 9s gestured in the direction of the city ruins. “He’s probably still out there, riding around in his shop.”

Kaine looked confused. “His...shop.” she rolled her eyes. “Of course he has a fucking shop.”

_But even so, all of this is WRONG! No matter how hard or how painful ... they never gave up. They kept fighting, because they believed they could overcome someday! Isn't that right, *****?_

“9s...we should...we should go.” 

“2b?”

“Just...nevermind.” 

2b grabbed 9s by the hand and walked as quickly as she could, almost dragging the young man by the arm in the direction of the dilapidated amusement park.

\--

Once they’d reached the edge of the dunes that gave way to forest to become the entrance to the amusement park, 9s pulled 2b back.

“2b...what was all of that?” Without his visor, she could read 9s’ expression far better, his eyes were searching her for something. She didn’t know what, she didn’t want to know what.

“It’s...an old memory I think. It’s not something I want to talk about.”

9s didn’t seem satisfied, but resigned himself when his comms were suddenly pinged.

“2b, this signal, the wavelength is familiar”

_I must...be...beautiful_

“Welcome...androids...to the New...Eden...Market!” 

“Is that?” 2b asked 9s, who nodded.

“How did you get access to this frequency?” 2b asked.”

“Please do...not misunderstand. I do not wish...to fight. I offer...you a gift.”

2b wasn’t convinced.

“Maybe we should check it out,” 9s said, a new waypoint appearing on their HUDs.

“It’s probably a trap.” 2b replied. 

“Maybe,” 9s chuckled, “but the war’s been over for a while, so maybe she just found something else to do?”

2b glared at 9s a moment, then softened.

“Alright, let’s go” 

The New Eden Market was in fact, not a trap. What had once been an amusement park filled with machines, which fell to eventual ruin, had been rebuilt in another image. Stalls and vendors lined the hallways, machines, androids, and lifeforms that 2b had never seen before wandered around, all in equal amazement at the wares hawked by various machine vendors.

2b watched 9s’ smile, it was dazzling in a way she couldn’t quite name.

_It always ends like this_

He turned and grinned at her, “2b, I think that one stall is selling t-shirts!” before she could respond, he grabbed her hand and led her through the crowd.

They spend the next half hour trying on clothes. It was a strange experience, one 6O would probably have enjoyed, 2b thought sadly. She remembered the line of operator units back at camp in stasis, while the twins worked on a proper cure for deeply infected black boxes. She remembered resting her forehead on the pod that contained 6O, and she remembered the feeling of tears as they fell.

6O would not want her to be sad, not in this moment of joy. She scanned the crowd and, well, it was really a festival, wasn’t it? She made a note to record as much video footage as she could to share with 6O when she awoke.

“Hey, 2b!” 9s called to her, posing dramatically in a very frilly dress that a machine with a bow on their head insisted suited him well, and promised to deliver back to the resistance camp within a few days, despite 9s’ refusal at their kindness.

“I’m not sure machines really understand currency, 9s.” a blush crept into her face. “But, you look very nice.”

9s blushed furiously, he opened his mouth to say something, closed it, then hurriedly rushed behind the vendor’s curtain to change clothes.

_Perhaps another time then_

She willed her blush to pass when her comms were pinged again, the same machine voice in her ear.

“I told...you this was a...market.”

“I had no reason to believe you.”

“Look to...your left”

2b glanced left and saw a balcony that she hadn’t noticed before, the opera singer waved back to her, surrounded by machine attendants.

“I became...beautiful at...my end. When I...awoke I wanted others...to become beautiful...as I had. They...call me… their god, but...I am happy… to be their...friend.”

2b nodded. She didn’t know why. It felt like the thing to do. She remembered a machine with a high pitched voice telling her that machines and androids could live in harmony. He had explained that machines could do complex and fine work in ways androids could not.

_I taught the children what fear is. I felt they had to know so they wouldn't heedlessly run into danger. But... instead…_

All at once, she felt them. Emotions that were not her own, emotions that were her own. They flooded into her chest, into her heart, her soul. It didn’t matter whether or not she even had one. She saw machines conversing, bickering, having arguments with androids. Out of the corner of her eye, she spied Anemone and A2, hand in hand.

Ah. She finally understood why she’d gone to Anemone’s tent and been greeted with a flustered A2 leaving it one morning.

Tears filled her eyes, and she saw 9s, still bickering with the machine who insisted that no, he was going to take this dress, he looked so lovely in it. 

She marveled, that even after everything, after fights and stillness and anger and loss and rage, 9s had stayed by her side. The idea of “family” was ridiculous to an android, but maybe...

_Maybe you can be that for him_

For once, she agreed.

**\-- end record 15A6F4, Branch E.**

I have decided to call this branch “A moment we can call Golden”. 

Zero insists that she doesn’t swear that much, but if I give her a look, she relents. Or else, she blushes and looks away. I’m not sure what to think about that last one, but maybe in time, even we can figure it out.

This is Accord, signing off!


End file.
